Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Absolutely; it is the same template. I take personal offence at some of those accusations. As someone who has worked hard and visited all of the schools in my electorate at one time or another, and who works in close cooperation with all of the schools in my electorate—whether they are public or private schools—I have the utmost respect for all of the education providers that I have been associated with over time and for all of the teachers in that profession. For the accusations to be made by members opposite that are totally unfounded, I find that personally offensive. But it seems that they cannot let go of their own ideology when it comes to education. Their statements in respect to this bill are certainly baseless. In fact, when I read the bill, I find it totally impossible to understand the basis on which they continue to make those accusations. If anyone is trying to continue to promote divisiveness between public and private education, it is the members of the coalition. Certainly the member for Chisholm made some similar comments about that earlier, and I support every single thing she said about that.

Over the weekend, I took the trouble to speak to two of the principals of private schools in the electorate of Makin about this bill. Both were concerned that the bill had been referred to a Senate committee and therefore may be delayed, both supported this bill, and both wanted it passed as quickly as possible. I said in my first speech in this place that it is through education and politics that the world can be changed for the better, and so I am indeed pleased to be part of a government that has placed education at the forefront of its policy reform agenda. Notably, I am pleased to be part of a government that understands that learning commences at birth and that the formal education process should commence at preschool facilities. To that extent, the Rudd government’s commitment to building a stronger, fairer Australia that is confident and ready to meet our future challenges requires an education framework enabling our schools to supply Australia with the human resources that have the right mix of knowledge, skills and talents required to achieve world-class outcomes. To achieve world-class outcomes and take our country forward into the 21st century, we need an education system that will deliver not only excellence but also equity for every child at every school and at every level within our entire schooling system.

While this bill provides funding certainty for non-government schools, it is my understanding that Commonwealth funding for government schools does not require specific legislation and is negotiated through the national education agreement, which is to be finalised by the end of 2008. While this bill will provide non-government schools with the security and certainty required to continue providing their high standards, academic rigour, pastoral care and innovative use of information technology as part of the national reform, the bill is couched in a much bigger agenda in that it presents the same funding model that is provided to government schools, along with the new accountability and performance reporting framework that will enable all schools across Australia to contribute towards evaluating our national progress in education.

The Council of Australian Governments recently agreed to establish a new curriculum, and, as promised, the Rudd government is developing the curriculum in consultation with government, non-government education authorities, teachers, parents, students, professional organisations and business groups. The national curriculum will assemble for the first time curriculum essentials, curriculum content and achievement standards in key learning areas acquired from the best programs from each state and territory to give every child a chance to access a world-class curriculum.

I want to address my remarks on this bill specifically on the importance of the primary years of education and the importance of the primary schooling system to a child’s educational outcomes. For decades the focus of education has been on the latter or senior end of the process, with primary school education being seen as of lesser importance in the education process. Primary education is primary in its staging and primary in its importance. ‘Primary’ by definition is considered first rank of importance or value, immediate importance rather than secondary importance, or the chief, most important element. Educational outcomes of the secondary school or the university sector are frequently used by secondary schools and universities as self-promotion tools. There is certainly no denying that secondary schools and universities are very important in educational outcomes. But so too are primary schools. Yet there is far less recognition of the importance by society broadly and far less public self-promotion and competition amongst the primary school sector when compared with other education sectors. That may well change in the future with the growing awareness of the significance of good primary school education.

I want to refer to one of the comments the Australian Primary Principals Association make in their report on this matter:

It is important to note that the discussion of a national curriculum has begun with a consideration of what is appropriate for the senior secondary years. The needs of primary students rather than secondary students must provide the starting point for designing a national curriculum.

The Australian Primary Principals Association is the national voice for government, Catholic and independent primary schools, so it represents not one particular sector; it is right across all sectors of primary education.

The role of our primary and secondary schools has changed over the years, with schools today no longer being places where children are provided with an education in the academic sense. Schools are expected to educate; provide essential life skills; encourage creativity and innovation; install social values; recognise the preciousness of our individuality yet understand the importance of community citizenship; and provide counselling and often family support, referral and information. What were once predominantly parental responsibilities have today become shared responsibilities between parents and schoolteachers. What makes the teacher’s role even more demanding and more responsible is that schooling is in itself a major new experience for primary school children. Teachers often are unaware of the child’s ability and temperament, the child’s parent’s values or the child’s home environment and specific circumstances that have shaped the child. The child is still developing. For that reason the primary schooling years are vitally important and the teacher’s influence in preparing and supporting each child for their future is incredibly important.

Primary schooling is the time that builds the foundations to a child’s future, yet the resources we provide our primary school teachers and the remuneration that they receive are grossly inadequate and far from commensurate with their level of responsibility. Not surprisingly, in a recent nationwide survey of 160 primary principals from both public and private schools, it was reported that about two-thirds of the school principals believed that they were underresourced.

I want to quote from another section of the Australian Primary Principals Association summary that I referred to a moment ago. It says:

The staffing of Australian primary schools is emerging as a major challenge for the next decade. APPA—

that is, the Australian Primary Principals Association—

research shows that about one-third of primary school principals have been unable to appoint suitable teachers to fill vacant positions. The problem is more acute in schools in less preferred locations and in schools with significant proportions of children with special needs.

The same publication goes on to say:

The health and wellbeing of school principals has developed as an issue at an international, national and state level over a number of years. As reported in In the Balance, some principals doubted if they would continue in the job, even though they were not yet of retirement age. They expressed dismay at the quality of their personal lives and the transmission of these pressures on to their families.

We need to increase the number of male teachers in the primary school sector. It is interesting that we have seen a steady increment over the years in the percentage of female teachers in the primary school sector. In 1986, 71 per cent of primary school teachers were women. By 2006 the ratio was 80 per cent. A combination of underlying reasons has contributed to that decrease in the number of male teachers in the primary sector. We need to increase the number of male teachers in the primary school sector so that children can experience role models and teachers from both genders in their schooling environment. Both genders have much to offer children in their developing years.

There is clearly still plenty to be done in our schools. The most recent OECD testing results demonstrate that Australia’s average performance in reading and literacy worsened between 2003 and 2006. There were too many disadvantaged students performing below the OECD baseline. No doubt we have some excellent schools, but it is evident that performance and opportunities in education have been obstructed and held back by underachievement in the previous government’s policy directions. In contrast, the Rudd government has committed to make new resources available and consequently make some big differences to our Australian schools.

In my electorate of Makin there are over 7,000 students from 12 non-government schools and some 15,000 students from 40 government schools. These schools, along with all other Australian schools, will benefit from new resources and the new national education agreement that will set the terms of funding and accountability for all schooling for the following four years. The Rudd government is determined to improve education for disadvantaged students, which will end an era when children from low-socioeconomic and other disadvantaged circumstances have been left to fall behind in their education.

This bill provides automatic and maximum recurrent funding for a very high proportion of Indigenous enrolments in non-government schools. The Indigenous supplementary assistance indexation rates and remoteness classifications are aligned with mainstream programs, which will enable assistance to maintain momentum with the costs associated with education delivery. This bill also provides assistance to schools that have disadvantaged students who have literacy, numeracy and special learning needs; that require special training in languages or English as a second language for new arrivals; and that have a geographic disadvantage due to being in country areas.

This bill remains a major building block in the government’s national education agenda across both non-government and government schools. The bill recognises and respects the diversity of schooling available across Australia. High quality education should be available to all children at all levels of their schooling, wherever they live, no matter what background or circumstances that they come from and whatever education sector their school is in.

The bill provides funding certainty to non-government schools through the same socioeconomic status funding formula and indexation framework proposed for government schools, allowing time for appropriation and payment to non-government schools for January 2009. The bill will also enable adequate time for the states and non-government schools to put in place actions to bring about the outcomes that are desired across the entire schooling system. This bill will also focus on quality, transparency and accountability, consistent with the government’s commitments to ensure that resources will be targeted in a way that will best improve our education system. We need to evaluate and measure where our efforts are going, where we are best able to achieve and how we can improve so that we are able to take effective action.

Together, government and non-government schools that cater for students at all levels can gather information as a result of the government’s new policy focus. Schools, teachers, parents and school authorities will be able to access information that will enable the development of new strategies that will equip our students with the knowledge and skills that they require for succeeding in the 21st century.

Over the years, as I said earlier on in this speech, I have visited and worked with many schools in my community, both public and private sector schools. I have the utmost admiration for what those schools do and how each of them adapt to the specific needs of the school community that they serve. In particular, when it comes to the primary schools, I am not surprised that the Australian Primary Principals Association believes that policies that imply that one size fits all will not always work across Australia’s primary schools. Any policy, whether it is one about a national curriculum or one about performance standards, should always be designed with sufficient flexibility to enable the individual circumstances of the school to be taken into account.

I have been particularly impressed by the importance that the primary schools that I have visited, both private and public, place on caring for each other, caring for others in the world and caring for the environment. Our primary schools can shape the lives of our children and of our country. I thank the teachers and staff of the primary school sector for the work that they do and for their dedication. The Schools Assistance Bill is an important piece of legislation. It gives effect to one of the Rudd government’s key election themes, the importance of education to our nation’s future. I commend the bill to the House.

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